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Senior linebacker Peter Sirmon is always in the thick of things for the Oregon defense
By Tim Pyle
Oregon Daily Emerald
Maybe it’s because he
got married in the off
season.
Maybe it’s because
he’s gone from a 5-foot-9,150
pound golfer as a freshman in
high school to the Oregon foot
ball team’s defensive stalwart as
a senior in college.
Maybe it’s because the Ducks
are coming off a big win at Ari
zona and returning home to play
three of their final four games at
Autzen Stadium.
Whatever the reasons, life is
good for Peter Sirmon.
So good, in fact, that Sirmon
even sees a silver lining to the
tom pectoralis muscle that limit
ed him to just 2 1/2 games as a ju
nior last season.
“It affected me, looking back,
in a positive way,” said Sirmon, a
Butkus Award nominee at inside
linebacker, “Football was too
much a part of my life, and I
think I was humbled by getting
injured enough to look at where I
was.
“It’s helped me this year to re
ally appreciate football.”
And Oregon has no doubt ap
preciated Sirmon’s return.
“Peter Sirmon has been an out
standing leader for us, an out
standing football player, an out
standing person,” head coach •
Mike Bellotti said. “He is a coach
on the field. His intelligence
about the game of football is out
standing.”
1 hat tootbalJ IQ — which
makes Sirmon “the quarterback
of the defense,’’ according to
linebackers coach Bob Foster —
is what Sirmon singles out as the
biggest difference between him
now and when he arrived at Ore
gon out of Walla Walla (Wash.)
High School in 1995.
A safety and quarterback as a
prep, Sirmon redshirted that Cot
ton Bowl season as he adjusted to
linebacker.
When he did make his debut
for the Ducks, Sirmon was ready
— and apparently Fresno State
wasn’t. In the 1996 opener, Sir
mon recorded 17 tackles against
the Bulldogs, immediately mak
ing him the heir apparent to Jere
my Asher, the star linebacker of
the “Gang Green” defenses.
Sirmon went on to make 70
tackles while starting five of 11
games that season.
In 1997, Sirmon truly broke
out. Starting with an opener
against Arizona in which he
recorded 15 tackles, two sacks,
five overall tackles for loss and a
fumble recovery, Sirmon firmly
[
Mike Crisp Emerald
Peter Sirmon, the quarterback of the defense,” observes the pre-play ongoings.
established himself as one of the
Pacific-10 Conference’s best line
backers.
Sirmon finished the season as
the conference’s leading tackier
with 115, including 17 for loss.
But then came heartbreak in
Sirmon’s junior season. After 24
tackles in just 2 1/2 games, Sir
mon was forced to the sidelines
with the pectoralis injury.
Oregon fans and Sirmon alike
were left to wonder what could
have been had a healthy Sirmon
been anchoring the defense of a
team that started 5-0 and was 8-2
before consecutive season-end
ing losses.
“In a selfish way, it would
have been easy to watch the ship
just tank,” said Sirmon, now 6
foot 2 and 245 pounds. “But they
just did a great job. That’s what
made it so hard.”
So could you, Peter, have
made the difference in a game
such as, say, the Ducks’ overtime
loss at UCLA when both teams
were still undefeated?
“I don’t know if I would’ve or
could’ve, but it would have been
nice to have had that opportuni
ty,” Sirmon said.
Although Oregon suffered an
other close defeat at the Rose
Bowl this season, Sirmon did get
some measure of revenge for
missing the Bruins last season.
While recording a career-high 18
tackles, Sirmon was instrumen
tal in the defense’s fourth-quarter
shutdown of UCLA’s offense that
nearly allowed the Ducks to
come all the way back from a 24
point deficit.
For the season, Sirmon paces
Oregon with 62 tackles and eight
tackles for loss. He ranks seventh
in the Pac-10 with almost nine
tackles per game.
“He knows our system proba
bly better than anybody, and he’s
doing a great job,” said Foster,
who was the defensive coordina
tor last season before sliding over
Turn to Peter Sirmon, Page 16B
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